Since I'm doing a series of blogs about inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons, I figure I had might as well discuss one of my current favorite TV shows: The Blacklist. I'm a sucker for anything with James Spader in it, but the show's mysteries also captured my attention. I just hate waiting week after week to find out the next clue or reveal.
The Reddit group for The Blacklist uses a graphic that asks "Who's your daddy?" because the main mystery of the show relies on the possibility of the Raymond Reddington character being Liz's father.
Each season contains episodes that seem like one-offs, but actually tie-in to a greater plot that usually goes into a big bad type of enemy for the season (or half-season) much like a D&D campaign would have one-off adventures with clues that might tie-in for a plot conducted by a big bad enemy.
I think you could have a campaign in which one of the characters builds into his or her background a mysterious parent (or simply unknown origins - lots of people like to play orphan characters). When one of my players did this type of background long ago, I had a ton of fun revealing the mysterious parentage/mother of the character and it led to great roleplaying. Just be careful that you work out something that the player will be happy with because you don't want to take away from the enjoyment the person had making the background in the first place.
I could discuss this show for hours with my theories about the mysteries involved (and sometimes I do, in the online forums with other fans), but this doesn't seem like the place for that.
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